Summary:
In chapter one of the book Seeing Ourselves Through Technology” by Jill Walker Rettberg, it focuses on self-representation and how it interweaves with today’s technological advances. First, Rettberg dives into the chapter with a reference to Parmigianino’s self portrait. It was a reflection that mimicked his face. Similarly, today many use technology to post a glimpse of their own lives and reflection (literally and figuratively). Then, Rettberg gives a brief overview on how the next chapters are going to play out, describing many aspects of self-representation and elaborating more on specific topics. Moving on, she mentions the three mandatory ways on how self-representation connects with digital technology—visual, written, and quantitative. Though there is a long history to the topic “written,” it has advanced and now is commonly used in today’s world (blogging, journals, etc.). In the late 16th century, it was concluded that drawing yourself was more acceptable than writing about oneself. Therefore, creating the self-representation of visual. It came through paintings and drawings then with heavy cameras to smartphones. Finally, Rettberg ends off with stereotypes faced in society with social media and technology.
Key Terms:
- Self-representation: how an individual may show himself to the media
- Self-documentation: what an individual posts online correlates into keeping memories/data to be looked upon in the future
- Communication: the imparting or exchanging of information or news
- Visual: a picture, piece of film, or display used to illustrate or accompany something
- Quantitative: relating to, measuring, or measured by the quantity of something rather than its quality.
Main Idea: There are three (visual, written, quantitative) distinct ways to represent ourselves on social media. With that, we can communicate through media and reveal ourselves to others through the online platform.
Commentary:
Chapter one emphasizes digital technology and how it reflects who we are as an individual. I do agree with Rettberg’s idea for the most part. I believe that today’s world is advancing quickly with technology and there is no way to avoid it. By knowing the ways to represent ouselves online, we can build a stronger foundation for relationships that will arise and develop. I also agree that it’s an efficent way to communicate with others. However, I believe that we should also focus on self-representation in real life. The chapter focuses on the world on screen, but we should also focus off screen. Though technology is taking over, we still have a bit of humanity to hold on. Every minute we look down onto our screens, we lose our self-representation with the people physically around you. We lose the ability to represent ourselves in real life. It’s important to grasp the online world, but we should also emphasize the importance on understanding the real world as well.
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